Transforming Collections

As ALCTS considers ways to address ALA's goal of "providing leadership in the transformation of libraries and library services in a dynamic and increasing global digital information environment," this page will list projects, reports, and other actions as they are accomplished. These efforts are supported by the Transforming Collections Task Force.

Microgrant Program

The Microgrant Program is currently closed, but will open again in 2015. The following information applied to the 2014 microgrants.

Purpose

The ALCTS Transforming Collections Microgrant Program is designed to support and encourage innovative practices, emerging technologies, and innovation in collections. The microgrants are intended for small projects or research initiatives in support of transforming collections.

Two microgrants up to $1,500 may be funded annually.

All ALCTS members in good standing are eligible to submit a proposal. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2014. Apply now.

Criteria

Microgrant proposals should include:

a title and a statement describing how the project or research initiative supports transforming collections.

a clear and concise description (up to 500 words) of the project or research initiative.

a preliminary budget that should not include travel, entertainment or meals, or conference programming or speaker fees.

one designated principal investigator (PI) with complete contact information. Coprincipals are acceptable, but at least one must be an ALCTS member.

Guidelines

Proposals are to be submitted to the ALCTS Transforming Collections Task Force by June 1, 2014. Go to the application.

Microgrant proposals will be reviewed for their completeness, clarity, and statement of support of ALCTS' efforts support and encourage innovative practices, emerging technologies, and to foster innovation in collections.

Microgrant proposals should be no more than one page in length.

Microgrant recipients will be announced and microgrant information posted on the ALCTS website by July 2, 2014.

Each microgrant is to be completed within one year of notification of funding, concluding with a concise report of finding, to the ALCTS Transforming Collections Task Force by June 15, 2015.

Each microgrant report of finding will be distributed to the ALCTS membership.

ALCTS provides the best publication opportunity for your work. If you wish to publish work coming out of an ALCTS-funded microgrant, please contact ALCTS publishing (www.ala.org/alcts/resources).

For more information on the ALCTS microgrants or to apply for one, please contact Kady Ferris, Microgrant Chair, kady.ferris@gmail.com, or Lisa German, Chair, Transforming Collections, lbg10@psu.edu.

2014 Microgrant Recipients

Recipients

Grant Purpose

Laura Turner, Head of Technical Services, University of San Diego

This project will develop a list of features that mobile technology should provide and then review our university’s library resources against this list. This research will demonstrate how users access our reference, instructional, and circulation activities via mobile technologies, and will inform our acquisitions process, thereby creating a framework for interacting with vendors to advocate for better access.

Karen Harker, Collection Assessment Librarian, University of North Texas Libraries

The UNT Libraries will initiate the MINES for Libraries® survey (ARL) to understand more fully who is using our resources, where they are when they use the resources, and for what purposes the resources are being used. Of particular interest is the use of resources in the humanities and arts disciplines.

2013 Microgrant Recipient

To increase access to the Abby Williams Hill collection, 1861–1943, by digitizing and providing detailed metadata for a selection of documents, paintings, diaries and ephemera. Using the interactive web-based mapping tool, Viewshare, and items from the Hill collection we will provide users with a visual and innovative way to study Hill’s life and activities.

2012 Microgrant Recipients

To transform a subset of the books that make up the Crawford Collection, founding collection of what is now the Health Sciences and Human Services Library of the University of Maryland (HS/HSL), to digitized format in order to make them discoverable and freely available online through the UM Digital Archive. This subset consists of books and journals with the LCSH “Medicine-Early works to 1800”. These books are written in various languages: Latin, French and English. Two of the books that fall in this category were written by John Crawford himself.

Transforms our collections into safe havens for open access materials by bringing into the library digitally published open-access works that are in imminent danger of being lost by restoring access and by providing for long-term preservation.